The present invention relates to an operation simulation system for plant construction in order to increase the efficiency of plant construction planning.
As the demand for electric power has increased in recent years, there has been an increasing desire for nuclear power plant construction on a worldwide scale. Accordingly, constructions of nuclear power plant have been carried out at home and abroad with an increasing number of constructions. In the construction of a plant such as an electric power plant, many types of operations including ground grading at a predetermined site, construction of building, carrying-in and installation of equipments, and installation of piping are executed alongside each other. These operations are carried out under directions of different organizations such as construction, civil engineering and manufacture, with their consent.
It is assumed that three stages, which are broadly classified, are carried out before a construction operation is started. These are design, procurement and construction. During the design stage, tasks are performed according to studies made by the organizations, which include plant building design, its internal design, layout of equipments installed in the building, carrying-in procedures, scheduling, setting of the temporary placement sites used before carrying-in, setting of the types of heavy machinery to be carried in, and setting of the operating ranges of the heavy machinery. During the procurement stage, materials and equipments required at the design stage are prepared so that they are carried in at the construction site according to the determined schedule. During the construction stage, which is the final stage, operations are performed using heavy machinery, based on the carrying-in procedures determined during the design stage. The heavy machinery is operated in the operating ranges determined during the design stage so that interference with the operations of other organizations does not occur. As described above, results obtained through the studies during the design stage are thought to affect the operations during the procurement and construction stages. To reduce backtracking at each stage and smoothly perform the entire operation, it is important to prepare an operation plan as efficient and precise as possible during the design stage. To prepare these types of efficient and precise plans during the design stage, in general, skilled persons have often taken responsibility. Since, however, the number of designs has been increased due to a recent increase in demands for plant construction; even non-skilled persons have been required to have the ability to prepare efficient operation plans.
When creating a plant construction plan for a nuclear power plant or the like during the design stage, a planner adjusts a plurality of conditions such as the procedures for bringing equipments into a building and the types of heavy machinery used at the time of carrying-in. These adjustments enable the creation of a plan that is the most suitable for increasing the overall efficiency.
Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2007-164771 as a first prior art discloses a method for supporting a layout design. In the method, when a plan is created, a layout of the equipments and pipes is converted to a two-dimensional CAD drawing or three-dimensional CAD model according to the request of a planner. This conversion enables the planner to easily grasp the concrete positional relationship among the equipments and pipes on the created layout. The planner can also change coordinates of the equipments and pipes included in the layout by entering values in displayed dialog boxes. Furthermore, the planner can perform a layout with costs taken into consideration by calculating the costs of the pipes that are cost to actually perform construction operations based on the set layout.
Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 09 (1997)-268760 as second prior art discloses a system for supporting management of a process plan. In the system, a plan to use cranes and other heavy machinery during construction operations is set for operations. The planner can select the types of heavy machinery. Furthermore, the system has a function for entering an operation plan into which the use of the selected heavy machinery is incorporated. The entered operation plan can be displayed, together with another process, in a window on a process cycle editing screen, which has the same time axis. Similarly, when the planner enters kind of occupation and the number of persons needed for the operation separately, a display can be reflected in a window on the process cycle editing screen.